un·fucking·believable

The invaluable McClatchy News Service reports:

Bush again links al-Qaida in Iraq, 9/11

Struggling to stem growing opposition to his Iraq policy even among Republicans, President Bush contended anew Tuesday that the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States are the same as al-Qaida in Iraq, a violent insurgent group that didn't exist until after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

It was the second time in two weeks that Bush has made the link in an apparent attempt to transform lingering fear of another terrorist attack in the United States into backing for the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq.

"Al-Qaida is doing most of the spectacular bombings, trying to incite sectarian violence," Bush told a business group in Cleveland, Ohio. "The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims."

Al-Qaida in Iraq didn't emerge until 2004. While it is inspired by Osama bin Laden's violent ideology, there's no evidence it is under the control of the terrorist leader or his top aides, who are believed to be hiding in tribal regions of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.

Moreover, the two groups have been divided over tactics and strategy.

While U.S. intelligence and military officials view al-Qaida in Iraq as a serious threat, they say the main source of violence and instability is an ongoing contest for power between majority Shiites and Sunnis, who dominated Saddam Hussein's regime.

In his speech, Bush cited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as the motivation behind the continuing war in Iraq. "They will kill a Muslim, a child or a woman at a moment's notice to achieve a political objective," Bush said. "They are dangerous people that need to be confronted, and that's why since September 11 our policy has been to find them and defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home again."

I suspect the president is intellectually incapable of making this kind of distinction between Osama and the original al Qaeda who were directly responsible for 9-11, and the franchise al Qaeda in Iraq which the President's own policies brought into being and which is more interested in asserting Sunni salafist power in Iraq than in attacking the USA. I think George is just too fucking dim to get his mind around this. Cheney, on the other hand, is not stupid. He lies baldly, deliberately and repeatedly.